Limone - Il Finale?

We have just returned from two weeks in Limone sul Garda. I was leading walks for HF Holidays and it will probably be the last time I lead abroad.

There were about twenty guests on each week's holiday, some of whom had come all the way from the USA or Canada. There was a little bit of rain in the first week but none in the second week and it was lovely to have the warm weather just as things are cooling off in the UK. In fact it was summer when we flew out from Gatwick and it looks like Autumn now in Hebden Bridge.

Lake Garda is the largest of the Italian lakes and is very popular with kite surfers, wind surfers and paddle boarders. The transport to the start of most of the walks was by ferry and the captain often had to sound the horn to clear them out the way. There is a cable car to the top of Monte Baldo that overlooks the lake and parascenders make use of it to fly high up over the lake.

Arriving back in Limone on the ferry.

Limone was the most northerly producer of lemons at one time and to achieve this they built Lemon Houses to keep the lemon trees in. The walls of these were posts that they could put wood and glass between to keep the trees at the right temperature. Lemons were not the only citrus fruit they grew. They also grew sour orange, sweet orange, citron, lime, mandarin, grapefruit, pomelo and bergamot. Many of these were grown by grafting them onto the root stock of a sour orange tree because it was a lot more hardy.

An old Lemon House

Sadly the lemon trees were infected by gummy disease, the army took away the boards and glass for WW1, there was an exceptionally cold winter, artificial citric acid was discovered and it was easy to grow lemons further south. These all contributed to the loss of the lemon tree business. Nevertheless enthusiasts have recreated a lemon house and it is well worth a visit. As is the wonderful Museum of Tourism.

Looking south over Malcesine

This will probably be my last lead abroad. It was already the case that many provinces in Italy, France and elsewhere were insisting that local leaders be used. See my blog entry from 2019 for example. Post Brexit this now includes many more European countries including those where they speak German and Italian, the languages I can speak a little of. I'm not keen on leading in countries where I have practically no language skills so, unless the rules change, I'll just be leading in the UK.

There will be a role for a Tour Manager to meet guests at the airport, liaise with the hotel and organise social activities on an HF Holiday abroad but it's leading the walks I like most.

I have had a good run and I do entirely understand why you might not be too happy having someone fly out to your local area from the UK to lead walks when you are trying to earn a living as a guide.

Back in Bonassola

I recently returned from another amazing trip leading for HF Holidays at Bonassola. This was the sixth time I'd been there! So you can see how much I love it. The Cinque Terre is a beautiful area with its photogenic towns by the coast and the views across the sea from higher up. There is some great and sometimes quite strenuous, walking as well.

Vernazza with Monterosso in the distance

The lower paths between the towns can get pretty busy. Top tip: if someone wants to overtake you, get in by the wall and let them pass you on the downhill side. The Cinque Terre towns: Monterosso, Vernazza, Corniglia, Manorola and Riomaggiore can also get very busy, especially now you get cruise ship groups, but we try to visit early in the morning when it is quieter. Seeing the tourists is really part of the experience!

We also get away from the touristy bits and visit quiter hillside villages. We have lunch at an Agriturismo high up above Framura which is five villages connected by steps. We also do some of the classic walks, like Riomaggiore to Portovenere, returning to Vernazza by ferry.

For transport to and from the walks we use the trains. This allows for more flexibility. We can depart really early if we want. That way we are making use of the cooler morning. It can get pretty hot and did while I was there. Using trains also means you are not committed to finishing the walk at a particular time. Monterosso station even has a bar on Platform 1 with an incredible view of the other Cinque Terre towns.

View from Monterosso Station Bar

However, the best bit is Bonassola itself and the Hotel Delle Rose. Two railway stations north of the Cinque Terre, Bonassola is a lovely peaceful place where Italians from the busy cities take their holidays. The hotel is run by the sons of the footballer Giorgio Bernardin who played for Inter Milan and Italy and they couldn't be more friendly. You can find out more of the history here.

The Roof Bar is a great place to sit in the evenings. You can eat breakfast there as well as listening to us describe the next day's walking. In the evening you can stroll out to the Punta Della Madonna and look back at Bonassola in the moonlight.

Bonassola from Punta Della Madonna

To finish, here is a picture of a prickly pear flowering over the Ligurian Sea.

Prickly Pear in Flower

Movement Masterclass

This week Dorothy and I attended a 'Movement Masterclass' in the Lake District. This was given by Chris Ensoll. Following on from my last posting about Gait, Chris also talked about the way we can use our legs as springs and use the momentum from the previous step. 

If you have a big step up you can go down a little and then step up. This allows you to use the leg you are standing on to push up rather than the leg you are about to use to pull you up. You can see Chris demonstrate this here.

He said that many people take too long a stride and that by taking shorter steps on the flat you can strike the ground using your mid sole rather than your heel, thus reducing the impact. We should stand up "straight and strong" and be "fluid and dynamic".

Something I really need to concentrate on personally is keeping my shoulders back and my chest out. You can feel your stomach flatten if you do this and it helps to engage your core.

When walking up or down a steep slope it helps if a line drawn through both your hips is at 45 degrees to the slope, with you facing downhill slightly. This allows you to put your feet at the same 45 degree angle, with the toes pointing downhill - allowing your heel and the whole of your foot to be in contact with the ground. You can see Chris demonstrate this going uphill here. On scree you should try to keep moving, in order to stay dynamic and cope with the scree moving as well.

Taking a break on steep ground

In a previous post on using walking poles, I recommended reaching forward and planting each pole in front of, and below you. This is based on advice from the British Mountaineering Council. Chris is not keen on this. He feels that it makes you lean forward too much and stops you from driving your movement from the hips. He is keen for people to avoid using poles going downhill if at all possible. This way you are strengthening the muscles around your knees. If you must, use the pole for balance by descending diagonally and holding a shortened pole next to your uphill hip so that it just touches the ground uphill from you. Change hands as you zig-zag down - similar to the way you would use an ice axe.

I will definitely try this but if someone is feeling very tired, I think it would be hard to dissuade them from putting some of their weight onto downhill poles. Going uphill you naturally hold the poles by your hips so no issues there.

I would really recommend the course. You might think that you learnt how to walk when you were about one year old but most of us have had years of learning to slouch since then and a course like this sets you back on the right path - so long as you practise the techniques.

Gait

I have just finished reading a book about the way we walk - 'Born to Walk' by James Earls. It is really aimed at physiotherapists and movement therapists and as such assumes a knowledge of anatomy that I don't have but as long as you don't try to follow every detail, it is still very enlightening. It has really opened my eyes to how efficiently we walk.

The book talks a lot about the fascial tissue which forms a thin casing around every organ, blood vessel, bone, nerve fibre and muscle in our bodies. Fascia has its own nerves and tightens up when it is stressed.

Humans have evolved a very economical way of walking on two legs where we 'vault' over our feet and reuse the energy that comes back from the ground when we put our feet down. Rather than contract and relax our muscles with every step, we use tendons and fascial tissue as springs with the muscles just being responsible for adding a bit of energy and correcting our stance every so often. Of course, more effort is needed by our muscles if we walk up or downhill.
 
This explains why walking around a museum or shopping centre can be so tiring. Instead of getting into a rhythmic pace, we are continually stopping and starting and wasting the momentum of the previous step.

Because walking involves bending and twisting, we counter this by using our whole body and our arms both to maintain balance and also as further energy stores to be released on the next stride.

By evolving these mechanisms our species found a way to wander over a large area searching for food with minimal use of calories.

Each step includes a number of 'key events' that allow us to use the foot as a rocker. The heel strikes the ground and then we flex the leg so that the energy is absorbed into the ankle, knee and hip as we roll over the ankle and then forefoot. As our full weight is taken by the foot the bones in the foot spread out before reforming into a dome as we push off on our toes and start the next step.

If any part of us is injured or stops functioning properly we can compensate by using our muscles but this results in a loss of efficiency and puts stress on the rest of the system.

We have different mechanisms for walking, running and sprinting, just as horses walk, trot, canter and gallop. The faster we go the more we use our arms to counter the rotation caused by our legs so that we keep our head and eyes as stable as possible.

Moving on from the book, another fascinating topic is Gait Recognition. The Chinese company Watrix is developing machine learning software that can identify people by the way they walk. Developers currently claim 94% accuracy. Scientists at Manchester University claim almost 100% accuracy for their AI software that analyses the way you put your foot down on a pressure pad.

The funding for the work comes from companies who are interested in using it for security purposes - at airports for example, but it is also claimed that it can help to detect the onset of mental illnes.

Just like fingerprint recognition, the systems rely on having a pre-existing database of people and their gait.

This link between walking and mental health is important. Personally I love the feeling of being 'in the zone' you get when you are walking at a comfortable pace and rhythm and it is a form of exercise that is available to most people.